advertising

[protechpc]

I have a small shop in south florida and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on advertising? It is unreal how expensive ads can be. The really bad part is that you really have no idea if the ad will attract customers. What are you finding? Are you using any advertising? Word of mouth? My business has grown substantially over the last 2 years, but mostly from reputation and recommendation. Ads have proved to be expensive, and for the most part, little bang for the buck. Any suggestions?

[3fingersalute]

We're in the same boat as you, we opened in 1989 and we have done very little advertising, yet we are the #1 store in our county. Word of mouth is the best advertising you will ever get, the only ads our owner usually does is Yellow Pages and school events. We do some radio and newspaper ads, but usually what he will do is trade service time when we work on their machines for some ads.

------------------
[email protected]

[NeuromancerIV]

My company faces the same type of issue. We do a trememdous amount of business in out area with schools and business oriented customers. We advertise mainly on the radio and some television. The feeling I get from the average consumer is that they veiw us as a "Fly by the seat of our pants operation." Till they get to know us. I agree word of mouth is the best advertising, but I wish change this impression. And I agreee on the trade service for Advertising, we do that a good bit as well.
Dont know if this helps

[Cappie]

Another thing you can try is finding out if the Businesses in your area have a advertisng co-op established. You can usually find this out at your city's chamber of commerce. If they do have one it works out good for everyone and helps alleviate the high cost of advertising. If they don't have one maybe you can start one up.

I agree that word of mouth is good. And also never underestimate the power of getting a couple hundred flyers printed up and having the nieghborhood kids distribute them on a weekend or at city festivals and the like. Parades are good places to be as well.

Hope some of this helps!

-Cappie-

[Green Iguana]

A quarter page ad in the Yellow Pages attributes to about 50% of my business, the rest is word of mouth and referrals. Have tried newspaper ads which were next to worthless.

[pga]

We have a small repair shop and are in our fifth year. We spend about $1,000 per month in advertising. Mainly in 3 different local "pennysaver" circulations. We only advertise in the local paper in November (before Christmas). We have also done some cable TV and radio advertising. The main reason for spending this much on advertising is we are located in the middle of nowhere. One of our competitors is on main street in a nearby city, and they do not advertise at all. Their location brings them enough traffic.

Ther majority of our business comes from word of mouth, however, the advertisements bring us new business. We may not always see an immediate benefit from a particular ad, but our feeling is that it keeps our name out there. The more people see the name, the more comfortable they feel.

I guess what I am saying is that if we had a prime location, we probably would advertise very little ($100/month vs $1,000/month).

The way I justify the expense is that if you add up the cost of our rent at our current location plus the $1,000 advertising, it is still well below what our competitor pays for a prime location.

-just my opinion

[Hlodh]

Depending on how "big" your operation is (by this I mean how much money you've got to throw around) there are some fantastic options out there. First, you absolutely MUST establish a solid electronic presence. This does not necessarily mean a fancy web site; it could just mean a positive and efficient system of service via e-mail or telephone. Secondly, I cannot stress this enough: local cable advertising may be ideal for some places because of its big audience and low cost. Call your local cable provider and find out. Thirdly, and most importantly, you must stress through your advertising that you provide outstanding customer service. This is the achilles heel of the big-box joints. They do not provide service to you at all unless you are planning on spending over $1000, and even then they treat you like you're a moron. If you can get across to people that "not only can we get you what you want, we can help you understand why and what your options are" you can make a killing.

There's a labor shortage happening right now, so good customer service is very rare. If people think they are going to get good service from you, they WILL go out of their way to spend extra bucks with you. I know I would. I'm already spending more on restaurants than I should because I insist on going only to restaurants where they have those genetically-engineered super-waiters.

[bdunn]

public access TV is a real inexpensive way to go on television. Many communities have local stations.

As college students some friends and I produced a show for a local station. It was fun.

You could produce an infomercial for your business. Many of these shows are.

[cyberhh]

Along with touting your fantastic customer support stress that you are a service provider. You are not in the business of selling toasters - you are selling computers - a computer is a tool that requires different options and features for each users unique situation.

As a small company it is sometimes very difficult to compete with dell and gateway, however you have some major advantages that they don't, build on them:
1. You are a local company - your kids go to their schools, you have a love for the locals (personal service)

2. Offer a "lifetime" warranty - for as long as the equipment is being manufactured -this does not cost as much as you would think and is a great way to offset a slightly higher price than the big boys.
3. Offer pre-delivery training. The other stores NEVER offer to train you how to use your computer before you buy it, spend an hour with them, make some reccommendations regarding usefull books to buy to continue their education. Stress that they can come in and ask you questions, etc...
4. And to use a method of the big boys - have a buy back program - after two years they can trade in their old computer towards a new one. This encourages them to spend money, relieves the "fly-by the seat of your pants" mentality and calms the reaction that you are just taking their money and running - you are showing that you want them in your family of customers. Also this offsets your lifetime warranty - and the old PC's can be sold to people who want more than eAppliances can offer.

Also you should contact your local college and recruit business and marketing students to offer ideas - they generally get paid a lot less and can use this work as a reference and possibly extra credit in their classes.

Hope this helps - if you need more just contact me at - [email protected]

[Bohemian]

1. Yellow Pages Ad

2. Fax blasting.

Good luck.